leg 2: vegas

after taking a bite of the big apple, i was en route to vegas for some annual training.

shortly after arriving, i met up with terry, one of my trade show besties (and the reason i ended up on stage with keith urban a couple of years ago).  since his promotion last year, i no longer get to see him at our human resource conferences, so i look forward to seeing him at the exhibitor show every year.

though we had originally discussed dinner and a show, i passed on dinner in favor of room service and a shower, meeting up with him after to go see our show.

we had decided on la reve, a cirque style show, similar to o, and i was excited to see the aquatic acrobatics.

our seats were in the second row -- in the splash zone -- and i was pleased to see that similar to cirque's love, it was a theater-in-the-round. i was also pleased to learn that they would allow flash-less photos, and as you might imagine, i took full advantage.

all in all, i'd have to say that it was second only to love on my list of favorite vegas shows.   it was quite beautiful. i enjoyed the diverse music and characters, and, of course, the company.

the next morning found me in early classes getting some mediocre training.  and, even though the training wasn't as spot on as i had hoped, i appreciate that the conference gives me an opportunity to reconnect with industry friends - sharing challenges and successes in our respective markets.

dinner with the exhibit house was on tap for the evening, and, since i've developed great relationships with some of them, it felt like a dinner out with friends.  to that end, mike and i met up with terry at the invite only house of blues foundation room before calling it a night.